Starting with the late 1880s and continuing into the early part of the twentieth century, California’s majestic landscape was the inspiration for many American artists. They set out to capture California’s vivid colors and intense sunshine in a distinctive style that has come to be called California Impressionism or California plein air painting after the French term for "in the open air." Venturing out into nature, these artists often depicted California as a colorful, sunlit garden of wildflowers or a tranquil retreat.

As a regional variant of American Impressionism, the California plein air style is a composite of traditional American landscape painting and influences from French Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. With the turn of the century, when Impressionism had only recently become an accepted American style, Southern California experienced an influx of young artists, most of whom had been trained in that style and had never known any other. The period from 1900 to 1915 marks the flowering of California Impressionism. It is part of the continuum of American art’s passion with landscape, a lineage that began long before the early years of the American republic.This exhibition presents masterpieces of California Impressionism from the Irvine Museum, arguably the most important collection of West Coast American Impressionism. The Irvine Museum is the only museum in California dedicated to the preservation and display of California Impressionism or plein-air painting. The colorful collection of more than 60 California Impressionist paintings presents the work of more than forty-four artists. Among the well-known artists featured in the exhibition are William Wendt, Guy Rose, Dona Schuster, Granville Redmond and Alson Clark.

2011-02-16

Brian Rutenberg's work is as grounded in Old Master painting and drawing as his sense of place and color is in coastal South Carolina, where he was born and raised. He spent his childhood exploring the coastal wetlands, developing a love for the landscape. He graduated from the College of Charleston, before moving to New York City where he earned a Master of Fine Arts degree at the School of Visual Arts. His abstract oil paintings have always reflected his love of the low country, which he freely acknowledges. Rutenberg’s work has been featured in solo exhibitions in prestigious galleries and museums throughout the United States, Europe, and Canada, and he will be the featured artist at the 2011 Morris Museum Gala. The exhibition was organized with the assistance of Brian Rutenberg’s representative, the Jerald Melberg Gallery of Charlotte, North Carolina.

2011-02-09

This exhibition presents a rare and exciting opportunity to revisit the artwork of Southeast Texas artists who are credited with impacting and promoting the development of the art scene in this region from 1925 to 1965. It features over 150 pieces of artwork in a variety of media by more than 50 artists, borrowed from collectors, galleries and the AMSET Permanent Collection. It examines the many cross-currents and influences that existed between these artists and other Texas artists and reveals a cohesive network of artistic, stylistic, geographical and even biographical connections. These key parallels pinpoint and elevate the evolution of the stylistic trends of the period and the placement of important work originating in Southeast Texas in the grand scheme of Texas art produced during the 20th century.“There was such an abundance of talented artists working in Southeast Texas during this time period,” said AMSET Curator of Exhibitions and Collections Sarah Hamilton. “Their impact was pivotal to the local art scene of our area and across Texas.”The Texas artists represented in AMSET’s exhibition were connected to the art scene in Beaumont through various local fine art competitions by serving as jurors, working as teachers or instructors of art workshops, or had exhibited their work at the Beaumont Art Museum, which opened in 1950. A selection of these artists from a long list includes: Maudee Carron, Lorene David, Will-Amelia Sterns Price, Patricia and David Cargill, Lillian Hayes, Clarice Holloway, Georg Hampton and Richard Stout.This exhibition is organized by AMSET and funded in part by the C. Homer and Edith Fuller Chambers Charitable Foundation, Helen Caldwell Locke and Curtis Blakey Locke Charitable Foundation, Southeast Texas Arts Council, City of Beaumont, Dorothy Anne Conn and the Texas Commission on the Arts.

2011-02-02

Seventy-two works by 67 black artists who typically have not been recognized in the traditional narratives of African American art make up “Tradition Redefined,” an exhibition organized by the David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora at the University of Maryland, College Park. Larry and Brenda Thompson have collected the work of both celebrated artists and work by artists who have been considered emerging, regional or less known. Artists featured in the exhibition include Amiri Baraka, Romare Bearden, Camille Billops, Joseph Delaney, Norman Lewis, Charles E. Porter, William T. Williams and Hale Woodruff.

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